whom the Serpent was to be sped at last In the mean while there are two further Points to be discreetly traversed 1. That Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and it is likely Eve somewhat near the matter whether more or less and begat other Sons not mentioned and Daughters whereof the name of never an one is at all recorded 2. That some penitent issue is not obscurely shewn to have issued from Cain himself For all the Sons of Adam not named we may take it for granted that they either abode in their Fathers Tents taking their Sisters to Wives who were next to be taken or went off with Cain to help him build and replenish his City being nevertheless of the Seed of the Woman or of the true Church so long as they retained the Worship the Rites the Rules and the Moral Laws that they carried off from their Fathers house And others of them cleaved unto Seth and holp to make up his Family because the Earth must needs be replenished and Children go off to further distance And thus we may conceive that the true Church was far from failing betwixt the death of Abel and the birth of Seth howsoever the necessity of livelyhood or civil accommodation might divide the Members of it But as Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years before he had Seth so Seth live a hundred and five years more before he had Enos In which long tract of time and encrease of Generations when men began to multiply on the face of the Earth and that Daughters were born unto them so that the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and took them Wives of all they liked then the true Worshippers were â—ain to gather unto one House or Tribe And how they might attain to any consistency there I refer you to the Letter of a learned Gentleman in the Postscript All that remains to be said here is this That when the House of Seth came to degenerate too God brought a Deluge on the World as it is commonly accounted 1656 years after the Creation CHAP. XII Why God preserved Cham and Japhet in the Ark as well as Sem. That though they followed the way of the old World yet they were encreased in dominion which was not the blessing promised more than Sem Nay that he himself was greater in temporal accessions by other Sons than by Eber. NOW one might think since God Almighty was so much offended with the sins of the old World as to say It repented him that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart that he would have taken such caution about the next succession that no generation like to that of Cain's should have survived the Deluge Yet as he preserved some of all kinds even of noxious Creatures in the Ark so he dealt by the intire Family of Noah He would not prejudge the Cases of Iaphet and Cham who were under the same protection discipline and common blessings with Sem till they came to be severed in their habitations and progenies Among the Sons of Noah saith Sir Walter Raleigh there were found strong effects of the former poyson For as the Children of Sem did inherit the Vertues of Seth Enoch and Noah so the Sons of Cham did possess the vices of Cain and of those wicked Giants of the first Age. As for Iaphet we read no hurt of him but it is rather recorded to his commendation that he joined with his Brother Shem to make some amends for the villany of Ham. who had exposed his Fathers nakedness However it is not obscurely implyed that Iaphet was either fallen or about to fall off to degenerate worship because this is added to his blessing for that act of silial Grace and Duty That God would at last enlarge or perswade Iaphet to dwell in the Tents of Sem who though chosen by God is for the most part concluded to have been the younger Brother Which Prophetick Promise to Iaphet as the like Curse to Ham were not to be accomplished in either of their persons but in their posterities some Ages after Wherefore for all the love and great savour that God shewed unto Noah he would not hinder the accursed race of enmity from spreading out of his Loins also to be two ways branched for the greater afflictions of Sem's choicest Descendents until the time appointed For as the Sons of Noah descended from Mount Ararat where the Ark rested whether it was Caucasus or Taurus Ham and his Sons seized on all that they were able to occupy from the parts of Mesopotamia to the ends of Africk which was the Road that a part of them took Of his Son Cush descended Nimrod the Founder of the ensuing Babylonian Greatness as also Ashur who gave the Name of Assyria that built Niniveh And of his Son Canaan descended the Sidonians Hittites Iebusites Ammonites Girgasites Hivites Arkites and other reprobate Hoards or Nations Of his Son Mizraim descended also Pathrusim the Father of the Philistines and Casluhim the original of some of the Bordering Arabians And such of his Race as aimed further Southwards peopled all Egypt and Ethiopia to the Lands end so far as their number or encrease could seize on Lands without resistance So that out of Ham proceeded the Princes and people which held the great Kingdoms as they grew of Babylon Syria and Egypt for many Descents together towards the future oppression of the Sons of Sem the blessings of Shem and Iaphet as my Authour hath it taking less effect until the time appointed So that the first great Lords of the Earth were of this accursed Race that they might thresh in the Theshingfloors of Israel and bring their Fans in their hands whensoever the House of God was to be purged by the affliction of his people And to shew besides that God accounteth not as men do of Worldly Greatness he letteth it go to chuse unto the Heathen who thereupon do idolize the Fortunes of their Princes and set them up for Gods The first of which this Ham is counted to have been by the Name of Iupiter Hammon and the places where he was adored most do countenance that opinion And who was ever set up for an Idol but the worst of men From Iaphet also and his seven Sons the Medes Seythes Thracians Macedonians Grecians and the most part of Lesser Asia were replenished together with the Isles of the Gentiles by which name the ends of the habitable World were only known unto the Hebrews From whence came Alexander first and his Captains and after them the Romans to subdue and to waste Eber. Which events seem to have been more clearly revealed unto Balaam than unto any of the better Prophets even in the infancy of this people while they travelled in the Desart towards this Land of Promise And Ships shall come saith he from the Coasts of Chittim and shall
happened after the promise renewed the third time in these words Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward For all the Land that thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy Seed for ever And I will make thy Seed as the dust of the earth which cannot be numbred In which promise the temporal blessing is only pointed at and that Land in particular more amply than before Some considerable time seems to have passed between e're God appeared unto Abram again with these comfortable words Fear not Abram I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Abram is sensible that these words relate to the three former promises yet doubting lest he should be mistaken in the meaning of them he makes bold to complain unto God That for all his former promises he remained Childless still and no other Heir but Eliezer his Steward a Stranger of Damascus though born in his house appeared likely to inherit all his Substance Which moved God to compassionate his Case and to condescend to him in a fourth promise that he should have an Heir out of his own Loins And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness Yet after that presuming farther to ask a sign though God vouchsafed to condescend to his request yet he caused an horror of great darkness to fall upon him in his sleep in or after which he gave him to know that his posterity should serve unto the fourth Generation till the iniquity of the Amorites was full However when this heavy agony was over God was pleased to amplisie his temporal promise in extending the bounds of it from the River of Egypt unto the great River Euphrates In the mean time Sarai thinking these promises to be made to her Husband only and not unto her self finding how the Case stood with her gave her Egyptian Handmaid Hagar to him desiring at least to have some little part in the Land promised by her own Maid which She was not like to have by another This was the tenth year after the promise at the least but as soon as She conceived Sarai was iealous of her and by hard usage wrought her flight and so gave birth unto a great mystery or two before the Son of the Concubine could be produced What made Abram so continent hitherto and so constant to his barren Wife Sarai Did he think it unlawful to take a Concubine And if so why did he now He might have had it seems a nearer Heir than Eliezer before this and if he had gone this way for Concubines were accounted as Wives only different in their Rank and divers of their Sons did inherit among the Sons of Israel whereas Bastards only were excluded as in the Case of Iephthah It may be Abram understood about Concubinacy what our Saviour taught expresly that God having made Man Male and Female one and one from the beginning it was not so yet that it might have been permitted unto him as well as his Progenitors for the supply of Issue if it had not been to grieve his beloved Wife and Sister-in-Law Sarai But now She puts Hagar to him as if it were on purpose to restrain his choice of any other What shall He do Is He glad of the occasion for the further satisfying of his flesh Or doth he do it the better to please his Wife even as Adam pleased Eve and fell by it Or in sine is not he himself also touched with a little spice of unbelief in his obtemperance unto Sarai as well as she In my opinion howsoever some Expositors do seek to blanch it the faithful Abram was at this time imposed on by his Wife Sarai and not excusable of some infirmity in the Case Though he stedfastly believed the promise yet hitherto it had not been revealed to him that it should be by Sarai By whom should he therefore try but by her whom Sarai herself had recommended to him It happened therefore as a punishment unto Sarai's diffidence that her Handmaid Hagar having conceived and thereupon imagining that she and hers should go away with all at last began to despise her and to Abram himself that he should have such a Lout as Ishmael by a foul Egyptian Of whom yet as a Son by Nature he was so fond that when God renewed the promise the fifth time of the blessed Seed thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael enough to let him know that Ishmael was not the Seed intended yet he could not forbear to intercede for him after this manner O that Ishmael might live before thee As if Abram could e'en have been contented that Ishmael might have been the man But it may not fare better with Abram than with his Forefathers Adam and Noah before him for as Adam had Cain for his First-born and Noah one or other of the Aliens so must Abram too the election of Grace having seldome been observed to have followed primogeniture while all other priviledges were annexed to it And as Cain and Cham were born to persecute the true Church before it was yet in being or but yet in its under growth like the red Dragon in the Revelation that stood before the Woman that was ready to be delivered for to devour her Child as soon as it was born so it was to fare with Ishmael who first scoffed at the Feast of Isaac's weaning and was after planted in his own Issue upon the skirts of the Land of Canaan among the Canaanites to be ready to join as far as any of them with the enemies of the Race of Isaac So that God would have out of the same Loins of Abram both the Curse and the Blessing to have their appointed course according to his own purpose without respect unto the favour that he bore to Abram In fine the Apostle himself warns us of a further mystery Why Ishmael should come between the promise and the fulfilling of it and why he was to be born before Isaac the Heir of the promise Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law Do ye not hear the Law For it is written That Abraham had two Sons the one by a Bond-maid the other by a Free woman But he who was of the Bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the Free-woman was by promise Which things are an allegory for these are the two Covenants the one from the mount Sinai which gendreth unto bondage which is Agar for this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth unto Ierusalem which now is and is in bondage with her Children But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all c. So that the further mystery beyond this that Israel should first suffer under Egyptian bondage before they should be free was this That the Law which engendreth unto bondage must needs come first
more or less profusion being partly Eucharistical even their very Sin-Offerings according to the wealth or liberality of the Offerer as also because the thing signified was of more worth than the sign thereof Yet it shall not be amiss to consider the headship of Christ two ways viz. as to 1. Power and 2. Mediation whatsoever Offices may be comprized under these during the state of the Old Testament Of the first we read That Moses when he was come to years did by faith refuse to be called Pharaoh's daughters son esteeming the reproaches of CHRIST to whose Kingdom he belonged greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward viz. in the Kingdom of Christ. And of all the people of Israel it is said That by faith they passed under Christ's conduct through the Red Sea as by dry Land Which passage of theirs is more fully cleared in another place Moreover Breâ—hren I would not have you ignorant how that all our Fathers were under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea And were all baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea And did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was CHRIST But with many of them God was not well pleased Which things were our examples Let us not therefore lust as they did neither let us tempt CHRIST as some of them also tempted HIM and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the Destroyer that is the Pestilence Was not therefore the Regiment of the Church of the Old Testament under God the Father Or if any delegation of Government was unto Christ under compromise as was mentioned before did he himself destroy who was said to be the Mediator likewise before of either Testament The Answer unto this will fall in better with the next consideration viz. of the Mediation or Mediatorship of Christ which may chance to clear more obscure Texts all together 2. Wherefore as Mediator our Blessed Lord under the state of the Old Testament at least seemed in one respect to have been but as a Moderator unto temporal punishments and in another an Intercessor not only that all punishment should be remitted both temporal and spiritual but also that all Grace and Favour necessary unto that estate should be afforded Neither will I be curious to divide these Parts of his Office of Mediator more than of the other but I shall shew what I find in reference unto any part at all relating unto this Head or remaining Headship of Christ as it may happen to conduce unto the first purpose First The Apostle tells us That the Law it self was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator And that When Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and Goats with Water and Scarlet Wool and Hysâ—op and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Whereupon neither the â—irst Testament was dedicated without bloud for almost all things were by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no remission As the Apostle would therefore have the Corinthians know that by the ministry of Moses all the Israelites were baptized into Christ by the Type of the Cloud over their heads and the Sea round about their bodies and did in effect and virtue partake of the like Sacraments by which they ate and drank of the fulness of Christ the Rock that followed them when they left the other behind and so had the like priviledges as the Corinthians had Yet as God was displeased with many of them to their destruction so he might with these too He taketh not the Government from God the Father while he sheweth who had the conduct from the beginning hitherto Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa But if the Son be despised now as heretofore God the Father may extend his justice where the Mediator is wickedly set aside by men for whose redemption he had satisfied But whether it was ever committed unto Christ to destroy his own enemies in any other than a spiritual way before his coming or since his exaltation is beyond the Question But S t Paul would have his Galatians and the Hebrews know not only that Christ is the Mediator of a new and better Covenant than that which Moses made in the behalf of the people but also that Christ himself in the person of Moses was indeed the Mediator of that too or else that it had been the worser for them CHAP. XXIV It was necessary by reason of the Curse annexed to the first Covenant that it should be delivered in the hands of a Mediator who could be no other than Christ himself God caused the Covenant of Works to be shut in a Chest under the Mercy-seat and why The benefit of Christ's mediation otherwise The Vnity of the Spirit in both Testaments THE thing that troubled S t Paul and the Churches of his Plantation more than any other was this Certain men which came down from Iudaea taught the Brethren saying Except ye be circumcised according unto Moses ye cannot be saved Against whom S t Paul disputeth in most of his Epistles and having shewed the Churches that this Doctrine made them Debtors to the whole Law as to keep the Iewish Sabbaths New-moons and other Fasts and Feasts as also to their vows and purifyings to their abstinence from all unclean meats and from all such Companies as ate so and from all uncircumcised persons whatsoever though Believers in Christ In sine to repair to Ierusalem to sacrifice as the Head-City and Mother-Church as oft as the Law of Moses required he takes the Question it self soundly to task to discover the danger and the ill consequents of it Amongst his other Arguments these are strong and pressing 1. That the free promise was made to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the Law was given by Moses so that Abraham being justified by faith without the Law the Law could not render the promise void to any that believed as Abraham had done before 2. But that the Law so far as it contained Types and Figures of things to come was it self abolished by Christ in whom they were all accomplished 3. And as for the Moral Law That none was ever justified by that or ever could be neither was it given for that end but only added because of transgressions or deliveâ—â—d in a terrible manner to that backsliding 〈◊〉 corrupting people as a Bridle till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made 4. In fine Because the whole Law had this dreadful Codicil annexed to it Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
produced afterwards such admirable Spirits so far as I can discover But if the Masters were indifferently such as I have described what think you were the Men If it had so seemed good to God he could have set them all alike without blemish But he would rather take in all now than leave out one And so must we leaving them in the good Land of Goshen all the life of Ioseph and some time after for the Text saith that Ioseph dyed and all his Brethren and all that Generation before a new King Iosephus saith of another Race arose up over Egypt which knew not Ioseph And that the people were so encreased that Goshen could no more contain them but that the Land of Egypt was filled with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS A LETTER In ANSWER to a QUESTION Propounded by the Authour viz. CONCERNING The multiplying of the Children of Israel in Egypt SIR SINCE You were pleas'd to request my poor assistance in the solution of the following Question to shew my readiness to serve You I set my self about it I confess at first I expected nothing but dry Arithmetical matter to work upon but upon farther consideration I found the Subject You had given me of a more extensive nature than so fit to be replenish'd with other more useful considerations and capable of a more noble improvement than I am able to bestow upon it yet such as that is here You have it Your Question is this How from seventy Males only in no longer space than two hundred and ten years as your Chronologer reckons wherein the Israelites sojourned in Egypt there could be produc'd at their first numbring in the Wilderness no less than six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty from twenty years old and upwards besides the Tribe of Levi which amounted to two and twenty thousand Males from a Month old and upwards and how the probability of this may be demonstrated so as to stop the mouths of such as Porphyry and Celsus without refuge to a vast multitude of Twins or a miraculous continuance of the power of generation in that people more than any other of which we have no mention in prophane Writers To this I doubt not but to return such an Answer as shall satisfie any reasonable man and your self in particular and having done that I think I shall have done all that You expected from me towards the silencing such as are of Celsus's and Porphyry's Creed in this matter if such as they may properly be said to have any Creed whose Faith revers'd consists in disbelieving Nor is this the only good effect of such undertakings if duly perform'd For although Christians believing the holy Scriptures to be from God who cannot lye do generally take God Almighty's word for the truth of those things that are there revealed without a strict scrutiny and examination of the things themselves yet if after assent given to the holy Scriptures as the word of God those amongst them who are qualified with abilities especially such as Your Self who serve at the Altar and whose lips preserve knowledge do search and dive into the particular Circumstances of any thing there related of an unusual and surprizing nature such as this seems to be at first view and when upon such search the thing appears upon rational grounds not only possible but very likely to be effected This not only puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men but highly confirms Believers themselves in their most holy faith and encourages them on other occasions to acquiesce and rely intirely on the truth of God's word when their limited finite faculties cannot fathom the reasons either of the thing or Command revealed Without any farther Preface therefore Give me leave Sir to affirm That in the matter before us there is no need of flying to an extraordinary multiplication by Twins I say Extraordinary for there is no reason to exclude it in the ordinary course of nature because we see it frequently happen amongst our selves and I believe 〈◊〉 might be more frequent among the Israelites even from natural causes such as the simplicity of their Diet above ours and the more fertile pregnancy of that Climate where Nature is more perfect and better digested by the nearer approach of the Sun who quickneth all things and is reputed by Philosophers to have a peculiar influence in the work of generation insomuch that it passes for an uncontrouled Maxim amongst them and a kind of Postulatum that Sol homo generant hominem And as little need is there of a miraculous power of Generation unless we will multiply miracles unnecessarily by styling every eminent Blessing by that Title which is sent in performance of a promise then indeed the great encrease of this people would pass for a miracle of the first rank For never was any promise oftener reiterated than this as if the Benediction vied in proportion and analogy to the nature of the Blessing it self which consisted in number Had the Israelitish Women been all old Sarahs nay had they been young Rachels or Rebeccahs and their Husbands confin'd to them nothing less than a miracle could have done it But as it is it holds no higher denomination than that of a very great Blessing which I look upon as a medium betwixt the ordinary course of Nature and a Miracle and much nearer of kin to the former than the latter because there is nothing in it either praeter or contra Naturam The several promises of encrease before mentioned being the foundation whereon I shall build my Superstructure it will not be amiss to take a transient view of some of them and the wording of them where we shall find a most remarkable exuberancy good measure press'd down and running over such as these Gen. 13.16 I will make thy seed says God to Abraham as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number of dust of the earth then shall thy seed also be numbred Gen. 15.5 And God brought Abraham forth abroad and said Look now towards Heaven and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them So shall thy seed be Gen. 22.16 17. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord That in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the Sea-shore And although we may think that this promise was partly made good in Ishmael and Abraham's other Sons and also in Esau from all which great Nations were descended yet that is a mistake for although they did seem materially to make good these promises of encrease yet formally they did not quatenus a promise but they were thrown in by God ex abundanti and on the account of other bye promises such as that to Hagar Gen. 17.10 11. and were mere Anomala's in respect of the main Promise Gen. 21.12 For in Isaac shall thy seed be called To whom
there any reason to suppose that there was not an even hand of Providence over them for good in one respect as well as another and at one time as well as another Can we think that God who promised Iacob Gen. 46.3 to go down with him into Egypt and surely to bring him thence again would leave him one minute whilst he was there unless we think the God of Israel to be some times like booted Baal whom the Prophet Elijah wittily upbraids to be taking of a journey I therefore conclude that as they were extraordinarily supported under their afflictions from Pharaoh so likewise that they were guarded from those three Calamities Famine War and Pestilence and that it may be truly said of these as it is of the Plague of Hail Exod. 9.26 Only in the Land of Goshen where the Children of Israel were was there no hail Seeing then that these People were thus cherished under the wings of Gods special Providence and protection from those sweeping Calamities which the same God inflicts upon other particular Nations and that frequently not only as the Punisher of sin but as the great Governour of the World and for the good of the whole in order to keep the Race of Mankind within such Bounds that the Creatures may suffice for food and clothing which they could not do if those three great Correctives were wholly intermitted but for one Century I say what wonder is it that they who were thus cherished by God as a Father and Sponsor and under his immediate protection unless that protection it self be a wonder should be so very fruitful in respect of adult numbers though they were not prodigiously fruitful above the Egyptians and other people in respect of the number of Infants born who had both Wives and Concubines as well as they For as other Nations so particularly the Egyptians are frequently subject to very considerable abatements in their numbers by those three calamities before mentioned especially the Pestilence in that sultry Climate where the River Nile every Iune which is a hot time of Year also leaves abundance of mud upon the surface of that flat Country at his return into his old Channel which must needs send forth noysom smells and vapours into the Air from whence arise Plagues and other Epidemical Diseases especially where people live at ease and luxury and crowded together in Cities whereas the Israelites manner of life they being Shepherds whose business lyes abroad in the fresh open Air might be a means from God of the preservation and that which Pharaoh intended for their ruine in all probability was a means to secure them from Epidemical Pestilential Diseases For it is a great truth that the Plague it self is no Plague to clean and pure Constitutions and seises those only whose Bodies by feeding plentifully and living at some ease contract vicious humours which the infectious Air sets into a high fermentation which it could not do if those humours were not there they being the only Fuel of that fatal combustion and certainly all the Colledg of Physicians though Galen and Hippocrates and Aesculapius himself were joined with them could not prescribe a more Sovereign remedy against the encrease of humors than Pharaoh did to these poor Drudges viz. the Leeks and the Onions the Garlick and Cucumbers of Egypt and if they would mend their Commons with Bread they must get it not with the sweat of their Brows only but of every joint and limb so that they were as clean as Horses for a Race and might bid defiance to all infection But when once they remove out of Egypt and from making Bricks without Straw and had little to do but only to stalk easie marches in the Wilderness and sometimes to lye at Anchor and to surfeit upon Quails and Manna till it run out at their Nostrils Numb 11.20 Then while the luscious Flesh was between their teeth Numb 11.33 they are smitten with a very great Plague and at the 14 th Chapter those who went to search the Land of Canaan dye of a second Plague and at the 17 th Chapter there fourteen thousand and seven hundred dye of a third Plague and Chap. 25. there twenty four thousand dye of a fourth Plague they being now both naturally sitted by their luxury and morally qualified by their sins for this Judgment But we hear not a syllable of any one Plague amonst this great people during their bondage in Egypt who were therefore great and numerous because guarded from this and the like Judgments For should God have exposed them to those devouring Judgments of Famine War and Pestilence that had been but the way to have unravelled the means of performing his own promise like one who travels in a Circle and having trac'd the whole Circumference arrives at length and not advances but to the same Point from whence he first set forth I can never think that the Egyptians whose wisdom is celebrated even in Divine Writ Acts 7.22 as an Ornament and excellent Qualification in Moses himself whom God chose out of all the Tribes to be his own Lieutenant or Deputy in governing the Israelites were such ill Politicians or that they whom the annual Overflow of their great River taught to be the great Masters of Practical Geometry even to Greece it self which it is impossible to perform without good skill in Arithmetick should be such ill Arithmeticians as not to be able to do that which I do now viz. sit down and compute the number that would arise from seventy men by their Wives and Concubines though every man had been as fruitful as Gideon who had threescore and ten Sons and then judge whether these Strangers might not in time become dangerous to the State and with a less auspicious inundation than that of Nile overflow the whole Country and like the Frogs enter even into their Kings Chambers Now the reason why this fagacious people did not foresee this vast encrease of the Israelites must proceed from hence That they saw no such prodigious fertility in them to make them encrease faster than themselves and they being many thousands for one Israelite Nature they thought would still hold the proportion the same They could not but foresee by former experience mortalities and plagues those Correctives of the excels of humane generations whereby God seems to say to the overflowing Ocean of Mankind Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther But then they look'd upon this Judgment in the same Notion that David does Psal. 91.5 As an Arrow that flyeth by day And for that reason they thought they saw it with their eyes falling promiscuously on the Israelites as well as on themselves not dreaming of that Pestilence Psal. 91.6 which walketh also in darkness and beside the track of all humane conjectures raging in the Cities of Egypt according to its usual Periods in that hot Country but making a skip or pass-over at Israel and forbearing to curtail his promised numbers in their
afflict Ashur and shall afflict Eber and he also shall perish for ever Nor did no other but the holy Line run through Sem himself For from his Son Elam the Elamites or Persians did derive their name from Arphaxad the chaldeans sprung and some say from his Son Ashur and not Nimrod's the Assyrians as from his Son Aram the Aramites or Syrians and from his Son Lud the Lydians what people soever they were became known according to the names of their Progenitors CHAP. XIII The knowledge of God dispersed in other Families besides Sem's but corruption in his also occasioned the Call of Abram Why Lot came with him and why he was driven into Egypt and brought back so soon Piety in Canaan while Sem lived there Nor was the whole election at first restrained to the House of Abraham NOW as Adam taught his Children as he himself had been taught by God how to sacrifice and keep the Sabbath with certain Rites of Worship and Laws of life so Noah also taught his Children all alike the same true Worship that had been delivered from Adam who dyed not much above an hundred years before the birth of Noah since he lived nine hundred and thirty years and Noah was born in An. Mundi 1056. together with the true meaning of the Covenant after the Flood betokened by a Rainbow And because Noah lived three hundred and fifty years more and the dispersion happened not in his life the knowledge of God must needs be far and wide dispersed in the Tents of Cham and Iaphet as well as in those of Sem before the Rout at Babel and they that went off in that confusion of languages could not chuse however but carry off some rudiments or other of their first breeding But when true Religion came to be corrupted in Sem's Family too as well as in the rest in the eighth Generation about five hundred and two years after the Deluge in the person of Terah who became an Idolater as the Scriptures do expresly testifie however Bishop Montague comes to have a better opinion of him Then it pleased God to call forth his elect Vessel Abram from his Fathers house to go into a Land that he would shew him where his Seed should in time to come be planted alone by themselves in the middle of the Earth and become a peculiar people unto God And Abram brought his Brother Haran's Son Lot with him by God's permission because he was a righteous man and yet neither he nor his were to be comprized in the same Covenant with Abraham and his Seed Iosephus says That Abram brought him along with him with intent to make him his Heir because as yet he had no Issue But the same Providence that brought them forth together within a while did sever them that Moab and Ammon that should hate the Seed of Abraham as much as Lot and Abram loved one another might arise out of Lot's incest and be ready planted in the Land of Canaan to be Thorns in the sides of Israel As for Abram himself God had no sooner shewed him the Land of promise but he forced him and Lot from thence by famine into Egypt to try whether he would not stagger after such a promise seeing such a defeat immediately upon it as also to make him a Type of the Seed promised who was to be driven into Egypt as soon as he was born as also to begin the sufferings of Christ in his Body the Church For it was from this time to be accounted that the four hundred years should be accomplished in him and his Seed of which he had received this threatning after such a promise of Grace for some shew of lesser faith than he had exprest before Know of a surety that thy Seed shall be a Stranger in a Land that is not theirs as Egypt and the parts about for in Egypt it self they remained but two hundred and ten years and shall serve them four hundred years But while Abram sojourned here he found more piety than he expected as he after did in the same Case at Gerar of the Philistines However Pharaoh's mistaken kindness unto Sarah occasioned the dismission of Abram and Lot with all their substance into Canaan as it is thought the very next year where their substance being greatly encreased they were fain to part their Companies also being great Abram was put to shew his power in falling upon four victorious Kings for the rescue of his Nephew Lot who had been taken captive by them for it is said that Abram was very rich in Cattel in Silver and in Gold And for his great Retinue when he treated with the Sons of Heth for a Burying-place for Sarah they said unto him Hear us my Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us in the choice of our Sepulchres bury thou thy dead As if there had been yet some civility among these Hitties of the Race of Cham somewhat of kin to piety But when Abram returned with victory over the Kings which he had pursued then Melchizedeck King of Salem came forth to meet him and he brought forth bread and wine because he was the Priest of the most high God And he blessed him and said Blessed be Abram of the most high God Possessor of Heaven and Earth And Abram gave him tythes of all his spoils as the Apostle doth expound it Heb. 7.4 So that here we are pointed to observe another Church without the House of Abram which hath an High Priest whereas Abram himself had no greater Title than that of a Prophet nor any greater Right to handle Divine Mysteries than any other Father of a Family which derived Priesthood down from Adam so that Abram paid Tythes unto him Not to enter into the whole Dispute about Melchisedeck Saint Paul preferring ancient things before the latter sets the Covenant of Grace before the Law four hundred and thirty years and thereby proves the excellency of it above the latter And to shew that our Lord Christ was of a Royal Priesthood far above the Tribe of Levi he proveth that Levi himself paid both tithes and homage to him by Abraham in his Antitype Melchisedeck while Levi was in the loins of his Progenitor Abraham as Priest of the most high God and King of righteousness and King of peace by augmentation of his titles King and Priest from ancient times agreeing in the same person till God appropriated the Tribe of Levi for the better preservation of purity after many of the Heads of Families were found so prone unto degeneracy whatever proper name he might have besides The generality agree that he was a mortal man immortal only as a Type of Christ and some think as à Lapide quotes the Authors that he was one of the Roytelets of Canaan who by God's Providence was preserved to be both a faithful man and a good King amongst them
of Moses And although Cunaeus doth collect in favour it may be of some opinion that the Church of old was still restrained unto one Family as from Adam to Seth and so to Noah and to Sem alone of his and to Abram alone of his and to Isaac alone of his line and that God despised all other Nations as prophane until the coming of Christ yet it seems to me that although many Families and Nations did not escape corruption yet some true Worshippers there were here and there without those houses and without that Nation But the first Church was the Metropolis only of all the rest Thirdly And now we may perceive the reason why Abram's Servants also must be circumcised to the solution of the Question with favour against Pererius That Circumcision was to be imposed since it was not free for Servants bought with Abram's money to obtain liberty upon the pretence that they would not be cirumcised Nor was ever Hyrcann's blamed in later times for compelling the Edomites when he had subdued them to be circumcised but commended rather The reason of their Circumcision besides the share which they had in the desire of all Nations was partly to propagate the knowledge of God if they went off and partly to constitute and fortifie the Body of the Church if they continued in the Tents of Abraham Such was the Church which it pleased God to form to himself from the beginning such the Materials of it And how many of these had true Grace in their hearts besides Abraham himself and his Wife Sarah and it may be his Steward Eliezer before Isaac was born I leave the Brethren that are most concerned to enquire But that part of this Question which relateth to the whole Church of the Old Testament with reference as a seal unto some Covenant that we may not be delayed in our progress here will fall in in a proper place in order CHAP. XVII Abraham's obedience so acceptable unto God that he maketh himself known to him in a more familiar way than ever before That Abraham knew nothing to the contrary why there might not be more righteous people in Sodom than his Brother Lot His various peregrinations are recounted and further Questions propounded to be enquired into SUCH hath been the acceptation of a liberal obedience in the hearts of generous Princes both of ancient and later times that they have not thought much to go out of their way and to come incogniti to visit one or other of their meaner Subjects whom they have known by such a Character In the like manner after Abraham had circumcised all his Males it pleased God not to defer as in former times but to make haste to come and see him incognito but in a more familiar manner than before to make the last promise or to confirm all the former to him to be surely made good to him within the set time mentioned before so that to keep reckoning we may account it to have been within a month or two after the last appearance To this was added the great favour of Almighty God for when did he ever do so by any other mortal man to commune with Abraham about the destruction of Sodom and to hearken to his intercession In which it appeareth that Abraham thought no other but that there might be many righteous persons there whom God would not destroy with the wicked besides his Brother Lot Some are of opinion that Abram remained five years at Charran of the Chaldees or that part of it to which Mesopotamia may be reckoned after he had received the first promise And then upon the death of his Father Terah who as S t Chrysostom observes though an Idolater had a fatherly affection for his Children he came as far as Sichem in the land of Canaan in the seventy fifth year of his Age and there he received the second promise and built an Altar to the Lord for remembrance because the Lord had there appeared to him It is only said that he came unto the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Morch And that the Canaanite was then in the Land So that it seems not likely to me that he entered into the City at all whether it were a walled City as is most probable it being a great and ancient one or only a City of Streets as we find such accounted in the number before the Nations were replenished But he removed journeying southwards and about Luz or Bethel which was after called so by Iacob he built another Altar for constant worship and there he called on the name of the Lord. But the very next year as it may seem he was driven into Egypt by famine and the year after that returned again to the place where he had erected his second Altar and here he remained if conjecture fail not about a year or two when obeying the command of God he went about surveying the Land of promise and came the third year to the Plain of Mamre about Hebron which was after called so and there built another Altar to the Lord viz. as a place where he designed some residence if it should please God to permit him And hereabouts he continued eighteen years even till he had received the last promise and then he journeyed again toward the South Country and dwelt between Cadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar where he made a Covenant by mutual Oath with Abimelech a King of the Philistines at Beersheba And Abraham planted a Grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God And he sojourned in the Philistines Land many days But by the death of Sarah in Kiriath-arba which is Hebron in the Land of Canaan we may learn that though the Son of Promise was born among the Philistines yet Abraham returned at the last to Hebron where he had his place of worship among the Hittites And there he had his last blessing of encrease by Keturah according to the fulness of the promise of God to the rise of many Nations from him And there he left in his Tents Isaac and Iacob Heirs of the same promise with himself having lived a hundred and seventy five years whereof one hundred hereabout and leaving Isaac about seventy years of Age and his Son Iacob fifteen And his Sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him with Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah So that all the expeditions of Abraham were 1. from the remoter parts of Chaldea unto Charran from thence 2. unto Sichem from thence 3. to Bethel from thence 4. to Egypt from thence 5. back again to Bethel from thence 6. to the Plain of Mamre which is Hebron or Kiriath-arba from thence 7. to the Parts of Gerar and from thence 8. back again to Hebron of the Sons of Heth. That which remaineth to be enquired is first What use Abraham made of his Altars secondly How he governed his
great City or populous place Of Abraham's purchase of a Field and Jacob's of a parcel of one Now whereas we read that Abraham and after him Isaac and Iacob pitched their Tent in the singular number it may seem that this is not to be restrained more than needs but to be extended so as the circumstances do direct us The enquiring into which will lead us to consider and perceive what manner of temporal or spiritual lives they enjoyed in their respective pilgrimages God having so provided for the honour of his Church that he would not therewithal afford them all kind of temporal enlargements or accommodations nor leave them long in any uncomfortable state Saint Paul tells us that by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles in the Plural Number with Isaac and Iacob the Heirs with him of the same promise By which we may collect that the Tents were many and Abraham's only like a Praetorium to the rest Out of which Abraham drew three hundred and eighteen men to pursue the Seizers on his Nephew Lot who was permitted to be taken that Abraham might redeem Lot and Melchizedech might thereupon bless Abram which were all said to have been born in his own house Certes if all in one Tent and you cannot imagine that they all lodged continually under the Cope of Heaven it must have been a very large one but if it had been so he would not have entertained three Angels whom he took to be but Strangers under a Tree without the doors As for his power over all these it was absolutely Despotical as the Princes round about him He taught them the Laws that they were to obey and he might punish as he thought sit without account to any other Prince any more than the Prince to him whosoever he was Which is sufficiently declared by Bertram in the same Chapter cited more than once before And if we think sit in the next place to consider what extent of Grounds these Sojourners might occupy and by what Right since they were but Strangers in the places where their Dwellings or their Changes were it may dart a little further light unto us It cannot be doubted but Abraham and his Herdsmen with their several Tenâ—s and Families took up much Ground because that Lot and He were forced to part since the Land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together because that both their substance was exceeding great which was in Flocks of Sheep and Goats and in Herds of other Cattel as Bullocks Horses Camels Asses Mules and such other Breed as those Countries did afford Now although it be said that the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the Land yet Abram said unto Lot Is not the whole Land before thee If thou wilt take the left hand then I will go to the right And Lot beheld the Plain of Iordan that it was well watered and he dwelt in the Cities of the Plain and pitched his Tent towards Sodom But Abram dwelt in the Land of Canaan Nor could Isaac and Iacob afterwards when the Stock was much encreased and the Families it is likely more but occupy Land accordingly The Question is Quo jure by what Right these Strangers took up so much Ground in a Strange Countrey and escaped wars about Plats wherein they sate down and in all probability entrenched themselves for the better security and about the Tracts round about them which they filled with their Herds and Flocks We must remember to set us right here that from the Flood to the promise made to Abram there is but about four hundred and twenty two years reckoned which is too little to imagine all places to be replenish'd in so that while the Inhabitants that were lived in walled Towns for safety and studied Arts and Sciences to which the Canaanites and Phoenicians ever were addicted and were employed in the cultivating of the nearer Fields and planting of their Vineyards the coming of these Strangers with their Stocks and pitching about them like a standing Fair or moveable City brought both Trade and plenty to them while the waste Grounds might be left at large without prejudice unto any Native of the Country which brought also encrease of Gold and Silver to the Patriarchs As for Abraham himself he kept at a distance from all the idolatrous Cities and entred not at all into them without some great occasion as Famine and Distress once or twice and to treat with the men of Kiriah-arba for a Burying-place for Sarah but Lot being indiscreetly mingled amongst the men of Sodom happened once to be taken captive amongst them by the four Kings and after hardly escaped from being destroyed with them And if it ever fell to their conveniency to pitch nearer to any City or better peopled place so that there might be any danger of interfering with them Then they either made some Purchase or some Confederacy or Compromise with the Princes or people there to preserve an inviolable peace amongst them And when Abraham was about Gerar he did all at once For when Abimelech and his Chief Captain Phichol observed that Abraham grew great they thought it good policy to take caution of him by a solemn League made by Oath That he should not thereafter deal falsly by Abimelech or his Son or Son's Son but according to the kindness that he had found in the Land wherein he had so long sojourned And Abraham sware and both of them made a Covenant At the making whereof Abraham did reprove or gently contend with Abimelech about a Well of water which Abimelech's Servants had violently taken away from his though Abraham himself had digged it And he made a Present to Abimelech that he might enjoy the better Right to it But of the Land about there was no Question made between them However when Abraham planted a Grove about the Well and set up an Altar there sojourning many days in the Land of the Philistines no doubt he became a Purchaser at least of some Tenant-right or other for the time both the Grove and the Well being to rest to him and his as their propriety And when Abraham bought the Field and Cave of Machpelah it may seem that he intended to make no other use of it but for a Burying-place though it cost him four hundred Shekels of Silver of currant Money with the Merchant which amounts to about an hundred Dollars as Iunius doth account which before Navigation came to an height was no inconsiderable Summ but as others it might amount to two hundred and fifty Crowns Once more and no more that I can find When Iacob came to Shalem a City of Shechem which is in the Land of Canaan when he came from Padan Aram and pitched his Tent before the City he bought a parcel of a Field where he had spread his Tent of Hamar Shechem's Father for a
hundred pieces of money And he erected there an Altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel that is God the God of Israel So that his Purchase seems to have been partly to prevent exceptions in that he had pitched his Tent upon part of Hamar's Patrimony and partly that he might erect his Altar of Worship in the most convenient place where-ever the other Tents were pitched for the benefit of the Drove The Purchase it self as the price was but small a parcel of a Field But why Must not he as well as his Grandfather Abraham leave it all behind him at the next remove CHAP. XXI Why the Patriarchs made it their first Work to erect Altars whereever they came What their outward form of Worship was Of the restraints and incommodities of the Patriarchs as living in Tents frugality of Diet paâ—city of entertainments want of Fields Gardens Vineyards whereby being hindred from sowing for themselves they were ost distressed through Famine if there was any scarcity abroad HItherto we have seen somewhat of the best of the Patriarchs state as viz that they had Gold and Silver and Stock and a great Retinue together with some favour in the places where they most conversed As for their outward form of Religion there being no retiring places in Tents for the exercise of devotion Isaac being fain to go forth into the Field to meditate they made it their first work to erect Altars whereever they came which were their places of resort to pray and pay their Vows and receive instructions and directions from God whether Oracularly or by the mouth of the Priest who was the Father of the Family as it is said of Rebekkah that when the Twins struggled in her She went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her Two Nations are in thy Womb which was said unto her while Abraham was yet alive Here they offered their Sin-offerings for expiation and their propitiatory Sacrifices or Peace offerings for reconcilement and for further blessings To these their Eucharistical Oblations of thanksgivings by First-fruits and Tenths and Spoils which Abraham thought meet to make Melchizedech as a greater Priest than himself Partaker of since the less is blessed by the greater because he had a certain knowledge of this before the Law As also As also that though every Father of a Family was Priest in his own Tents yet when he came to a greater Father in such a Tribe or Kindred as were true Worshippers that the younger was to serve the elder and to pay such a reverence to him as if he reserved none unto himself Let us next consider before we leave them some of their restraints and incommodities under which it pleased God to discipline and train them up unto a growing Church We have a kind of Emblem of it in the Case of the Rechabites whose Father Ionadab commanded them saying Ye shall drink no Wine you nor Your Wives nor your Sons nor your Daughters for ever Neither shall ye build house nor plant Vineyard nor have a Field nor any Seed But all your days ye shall dwell in Tents that ye may live many days in the Land where ye be Strangers Only for fear of the Army of the Chaldeans say they we dwell at Ierusalem for a time even as Abraham might do in Gerar or in Hebron whose example that devout man seemed to recommend unto his Children and their Posterity for ever and so to become more extraordinary Votaries than any of the Nazarites For Wine indeed it was not forbidden to the Patriarchs but they could not have it of their own since they could not be so well setled as Noah who began to be an Husbandman and planted a Vineyard and he drank the Wine and was drunken belike as unaccustomed to it too Even as it happened unto Lot whose Daughters got the Wine no doubt from the inhabitants of the Land But since the Patriarchs had no such intimacy with their wicked Neighbours we read of no other Beverage that they had but Milk and Water And such were their frugal entertainments with Cakes made ready upon the hearth and a little Butter Veal or Kid fetched as occasion served from the Flock And that we may likewise think might much conduce to their encrease of Wealth since they made much ado about the approach of any Visitant that came for kindness only as a rare thing As for the Fields which Abraham and Iacob purchased we have noted before that the one was for no other use but a Burying-place and the other for his Booth and his Altar even as men at a Fair pay for the Ground they break or occupy for the time For S t Stephen telleth us That God gave them no inheritance in the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as to set their foot upon but a promise only unto Abraham's posterity And S t Paul that Abraham by faith only sojourned in the Land of promise as in a strange Countrey And in opposition unto houses that he dwelt in Tabernacles which are no more comparable unto Houses than the Ship-Cabins to the Chambers of a Palace with Isaac and Iacob the Heirs with him of the same promise though for Isaac it seems that he was not lodged under the same Roof with Abraham but was enlarged enough in Family to have a Tent of his own when he went forth to meet Rebekkah and having met her he brought her into his Mother Sarah's Tent or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mutual joy and Rebekkah's better welcome Having therefore no Lands what should they do with Seed This might be the Cause why they were so oft distressed by Famine if there were a little Drought because the Husbandmen of Canaan seem to have been but few and might easily be brought to have little enough for their own necessities And by these occasions happened the chiefest of the troubles of Abraham's life that have been touched before Which things considered and weighed I cannot but wonder at some mens accessions so near unto that Socinian fancy as if the Fathers of the Old Testament did but only live according unto temporal promises as they were in part from time to time fulfilled to them So apt are men sometimes to dote upon Antiquity as if nothing in the latter Ages could either happen or be done like what was then and at other times to look upon the same as meer dotage even as young men when they hearken to old mens Tales think that they themselves are able to do much more and better Or as others pretend that the modern Ages must needs be far more knowing because they stand upon their Shoulders while they are but growing up unto their Elbows at least more pious by revelation and experience whereas more knowledge is lost than can possibly be repaired and more piety than the declining Age of the World is likely to restore CHAP. XXII Adam and Eve earnestly looked
Whether they were but seventy Males in all to wave the Question whether they were so many for some are of opinion that some of Iacob's Sons Sons are reckoned by anticipation and might for all that be born in Egypt after they were planted in the Land of Goshen Let us hear what may be said on either side And first that they were but seventy precisely or thereabouts as S t Stephen reckoneth For First It is safe to keep to the Letter of the Scripture in Historical Passages especially and not to wire-draw it or extend it more than needs for fear of wresting or of worser consequences that may be drawn from more remote constructions than from the very words Now of Iacob and his Sons it is expresly said First That Iacob sent his ten Sons and no more into Egypt to buy Corn by which it may seem that he had no such number to spare as hath been suggested Or that his Sons were but as the rest by the errand that they went on Secondly When Ioseph returned their monies it was to every man in the mouth of his Sack and being searched upon their second return when they had Benjamin with them the search began from the eldest to the youngest and could proceed no further because it seems they were no more Thirdly Their dealing was for little since so few Asses could carry what they came for and their Sacks not so full but that they could contain Provender besides proving nothing else but that these being laden the poor Ass-Riders must go on foot home Fourthly By Iacob's mean Present and Iudah's fear of losing the Asses when they were taken it seems they were but poor and so when Ioseph returned an answerable Present with Waggons to his Father to bring him into Egypt Fifthly Besides that there maybe no doubt of the number it is carefully recorded how many came with Iacob and were there before viz. seventy souls And so Iosephus Jewish Antiquary doth account and no more Sixthly In fine it would be a strange extravagancy to put so many Supernumeraries of we know not what Aliens unto this account which must needs reckon them to Israel and the Seed of Abraham and so to the only Church of God or else give some other clear account what became of them at the last Secondly Notwithstanding which Objections we must hold That Israel descended into Egypt with more than seventy person by these two Arguments which will be proved by answering the Objections only 1. Because he descended with all his houshold 2. Because he neither could nor ought to part with his circumcised Servants and their Wives and Children CHAP. XXXIV Certain Corollary Rules preliminary to the answering of the first Objection That Jacob sent his Sons to Joseph as a foreign Prince for a favour but not unaccompanied considering 1. Their concern 2. What weight of money they might take with them in so many Bundles if only to lade ten Asses 3. What the length and hazard of the way The four next Objections briefly answered TO the first good Rule these others may be joined as succedaneous Corollaries First That the sense of the Scripture is its own authority more than the Critical position of the words warranted by several Quotations in the New Testament out of the Old Secondly That necessary consequence is all one with the Text it self neither was a good Inference ever sleighted Thirdly That in such Historical Passages of Scriptures as do veil or are invelop'd with a mystery we are in a manner directed to a further indagation by S t Paul where he tells us what else we should have hardly found that one of Abraham's Sons by a Bond-maid and another by a free Woman did by an Allegory exhibit to us the difference of state betwixt Mount Sinai and the New Ierusalem or betwixt the Law and Grace Bondage and Liberty Fourthly That by comparing Passages one Scripture doth best expound another After which Preliminaries I address my self to answer the first Objection thus First It is still to be remembered that it is above two hundred and ten years since Abram armed three hundred and eighteen trained Servants born in his own house to pursue the Kings that had taken Lot Prisoner And if seventy Persons only in two hundred and ten years or thereabouts might become such an incredible number as the possibility hath been demonstrated what may we think of three hundred and eighteen more in the same Family Partakers of the like Blessings so far as their encrease was the encrease of Abraham's wealth and strenght But not to be entangled with too many difficulties to think modesty Iacob could scarce have less than a thousand souls within his Tents Secondly But why then did he send his ten Sons only with their ten Asses to buy Corn for them all Could they bring enough Or did they only bring for Iacob's own Tent and leave the rest to live on Roots or Nuts and Almonds with which it seems by the Present that the Land abounded You must remember Ioseph's Dreams that their sheaves should do obeysance to his sheaf and the Sun and the Moon and the eleven Stars also and then you must consider his present state and the condition of all the Nations thereabouts Ioseph was advanced to be chief Minister of State under Pharaoh and according to his own advice he was appointed to take up the fifth part of the Land of Egypt for seven years together of plenty against seven other to ensue of certain famine according to the interpretation of Pharaoh's Dream And when the famine came in all parts Iacob heard that there was Corn in Egypt for Ioseph had gathered Corn as the sand of the Sea very much until he left numbring for it was without number but not to be had save only from the hands of Pharaoh or his chief Minister and therefore you may know he sent his ten Sons and not his Servants to do their obeysance for Corn But not without Attendance as we may easily collect from divers circumstances as 1. From the Concern that they had 2. From the money that they carried with them 3. From the hazard of the Journey and the length thereof As for their Concern they had every man his own Family and did not always eat in Iacob's presence Nor could they live on Nuts or Almonds any more than the Egyptians on their Fruits who were forced to sell their Lands and their Persons too to Pharaoh that they might have Bread For their money every of the ten carried a Bundle in his Bag Think you that a Bundle of Silver as money went then was but enough to buy one Asses burthen Weigh the Bundle and the burthen and consider For their Journey it could be little less than two hundred miles directly from Hebron unto Caire If they brought but each man an Ass-Load what might they spend by the
not him they bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the Earth knowing what kind of reverence the proud Egyptians did expect Then Ioseph remembred the dreams which he had dreamed of them and like a crafty Statesman to get what he could out of them and to make them fit for what he presently apprehended he spake roughly to them and dealt as hardly keeping them three days in ward and speaking to them by an Interpreter nay he took Simeon from them as a Pledge and bound him before their eyes and sent them away the first time in fear But the next time as soon as Ioseph spied Benjamin in their Company he said to the Ruler of his house Bring these men into my house and slay and make ready a place that will trouble them to answer who would perswade us as if the Egyptians then did eat no living Creature for these men shall dine with me at noon Then he brought Simeon forth unto them who no doubt looked never the worse for his detainment And they made ready the Present against Ioseph came in and made many low obeysances but he spake very kindly to them Then that Ioseph might reserve Dignity to himself in the sight of the Egyptians he caused himself to be served at a Table of State and that there might be no interfering he caused his Brethren knowing their scruples about eating of unclean meats or with uncircumcised men to be served at another Table by themselves And knowing also the superstition of the Egyptians who looked upon the Hebrews as prophane to them as the Egyptians could be unto the Hebrews if they did not also scorn them as Shepherds he caused them to eat in the same presence apart so that all admired and there was no exception but they drank and were merry as Ioseph had ordered the matter and no doubt obtained favour with such Egyptian Courtiers as there were then admitted at the entertainment Now when Iacob drew near unto Goshen he thought it a fit Ceremony for his part to send Iudah before as his Harbinger to prepare for his reception by his Son Ioseph in the state wherein he then was And Ioseph hastened in his Chariot to meet him as a Prince and to do honour to his aged Father And so instructed all his Company how to behave themselves before Pharaoh But since policy did require that Pharaoh should not see all civility and gratitude seemed to prompt Ioseph that he should present at least the chief of Pharaoh's beneficiaries before his face and he thought it enough to present but five of them to do or to receive that honour It is like the most personable and fashionable of his Brethren that were the Sons of Rachel and Leah rather than of the Concubines who we are not to doubt made their reverence unto Pharaoh as the Master of the Egyptian Ceremonies should direct them But as for his venerable Father he brought him in after them which was ever esteemed the more honour and set him before Pharaoh And Iacob blessed Pharaoh after his own way whether as a Prince and Priest of the most High God or as a congratulation only of his favours And so when he went out after short communication by Interpreters he blessed him again And Pharaoh accepted of their addresses and seems to have been pleased and satisfied with them Thus was the way made for Israel and his Children to be planted in Rameses which I take to be a fenced place with a Territory situate upon the jaws of the seven-mouth'd Nile and for his Hinds and Herdsmen to pitch where they liked in the Province of Goshen So the former of these needed Tents no longer for when Ioseph sent for them he had said from Pharaoh's mouth Come unto me and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt Regard not your stuff for the good of all the Land of Egypt is yours 'T is true the place might be called Rameses by anticipation as that which was called Luz was after called Bethel by Iacob's nomination but that there was an habitable Town or City before Iacob came thither I doubt not both because of Ioseph's recommendation of his father to a good place and because of the situation of it as a necessary Fortress against Out-livers of another Nation However some are of opinion that the Israelites themselves might build that City as the English did Calais while they were in Egypt before the Task-masters set them to work to fortifie it more as a Treasure-City and a Bridle to themselves from escaping as well as to keep out others against common sence for throughout their prosperity they were instructed that the Land of Canaan was their inheritance expecting daily as good a Call to return out of Egypt as ever they had to come thither Said not God unto Iacob at his first descent I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again And said not Ioseph on his death-bed unto his Brethren I dye and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this Land unto the Land which he sware unto Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ye shall carry up my bones from hence Which he did by faith as S t Paul witnesseth bearing up the like in his Brethren and Posterity In this estate the Children of Israel lived in prosperity the remaining seventeen years of Iacob's life and about fifty four more of Ioseph's through the Reign of more Kings than one as Historians tell us Even as it happened after unto Daniel for the sake of the same people when they were a second time to be redeemed from their bondage As large a time of felicity as God doth usually grant to his Church at once that their hearts should neither fail nor wax gross But before any change arrive we will leave them in their best condition in a foreign Countrey only eying in the close what their spiritual state was as the only remaining visible or at least conspicuous Church of God under Heaven CHAP. XXXVII Thâ— Israelites had toleration in Egypt as to offer Sacrifices during Ioseph's life Afterwards denied them That contrary Religions are sooner tolerated than diversities of the same That there was but one Religion in Satan's Kingdom how many Gods soever the Heathen worshipped Jews at this day tolerated much at the like rate that they were before THERE are three Questions emergent here if I may dare to handle the Argument that I have in hand viz. first Toleration secondly Division and thirdly The Unity of the Church The first from the indulgence of Egypt during Ioseph's life The second from the piety of Ioseph's house while separated from his Brethren And the third from the adoption of the whole house of Iacob whereas but one of Abraham or Isaac's Sons were comprehended in the blessing even of the Sons of Bilhah and Zilpah in opposition unto Hagar and Keturah It is not only